A little about Playa Zipolite, The Beach of the Dead . . .

Playa Zipolite, Oaxaca, Southern Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. A little bit about my favorite little get-away on this small world of ours.

Zipolite, a sweaty 30-minute walk west from Puerto Angel, brings you to Playa Zipolite and another world. The feeling here is 1970's - Led Zep, Marley, and scruffy gringos.

A long, long time ago, Zipolite beach was usually visited by the Zapotecans...who made it a magical place. They came to visit Zipolite to meditate, or just to rest.

Recently, this beach has begun to receive day-trippers from Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido, giving it a more TOURISTY feel than before.

Most people come here for the novelty of the nude beach, yoga, turtles, seafood, surf, meditation, vegetarians, discos, party, to get burnt by the sun, or to see how long they can stretch their skinny budget.

I post WWW Oaxaca, Mexico, Zipolite and areas nearby information. Also general budget, backpacker, surfer, off the beaten path, Mexico and beyond, information.

REMEMBER: Everyone is welcome at Zipolite.

ivan

Monday, July 1, 2013

Mountain Biking Near Mazunte, Oaxaca » Tour in Tune Some dirt road mountain biking I found above Pochutla and Tonameca just north of Mazunte on the Oaxacan Coast. www.tourintune.com/mountain-biking-near-mazunte-oaxaca/

Mountain Biking Near Mazunte, Oaxaca » Tour in Tune
Some dirt road mountain biking I found above Pochutla and Tonameca just north of Mazunte on the Oaxacan Coast.
www.tourintune.com/mountain-biking-near-mazunte-oaxaca/

Mountain Biking Near Mazunte, Oaxaca

Whilst staying in Mazunte, I started getting cravings for some off-road exploring. Jenny’s Spanish maestro and local rafting guide, Daniel, kindly gave me some tips for some dirt road networks near Pochutla and Tonameca. I mapped out a few tracks for the Garmin and set off to explore!

This shows the routes that I actually rode as marked on Strava and overlayed together.

I created the map above to load some tracks onto my Garmin GPS. You can download the KML file and then convert it to GPX using GPSVisualizer.com.

I was lucky to have stumbled on some fantastic riding on the quiet dirt roads. There is plenty of climbing with some great descents. You can cycle on the paved roads to reach Tonameca where it then turns to dirt for miles and miles. If you want to skip the paved roads, you can throw your bike in the back of a ‘collectivo’ truck for about $10-20 pesos (£0.55-£1.10).

You can ride on the road from Mazunte or take a collectivo truck to get a headstart up the dirt roads above Tonameca.

The collectivo trucks were still crossing this river when I took this photo. The water level has since risen a few feet after massive downpours. Now the collectivos stop at either end of the river banks. Who knows when they will finish the bridge!

The river crossing for the collectivo trucks near San Francisco.

It’s also pretty refreshing in the midday sun!

Only the most clever of goats shall pass!

Long, windy dirt roads with almost no cars; Just the way I like it!

The flooding after the big rain takes its toll. Many of the roads become washed out and impassable for cars, whilst making for more technical mountain biking!

I encountered far more animals than people and trucks. Aside from the goats, you might also be able to see the massive 3 metre snack in the bottom right corner. It was weaving up the side of the road with some sort of rodent in its mouth.